Zahra Kazemi

freelance

July 10, 2003, in Tehran, Iran

Kazemi, an Iranian-Canadian freelance photographer, died in Tehran's Baghiatollah Hospital after being transferred from government custody. Kazemi, a contributor to the Montreal-based magazine Recto Verso and the London-based photo agency Camera Press, was detained on June 23 while taking photographs of the families of detainees outside Tehran's Evin Prison. She was held for nearly two weeks before being transferred to the hospital in a coma.

During subsequent weeks, officials tried to cover up the circumstances of Kazemi's death. Initially, Iranian officials maintained that the journalist had died of a stroke, and that she had complained of poor health while she was detained. On July 16, Iranian Vice President Mohammad Ali Abtahi announced that Kazemi had died from a "brain hemorrhage resulting from beatings." Foreign Minister Kamal Kharrazi later backed away from the statement, saying the journalist may have died from an "accident." A government inquiry released in late July 2003 concluded that Kazemi died as a result of a skull fracture likely caused by a blow to her head.

Authorities prevented an autopsy by burying Kazemi's body in Iran against the wishes of her family in Canada. The Canadian government responded by withdrawing its ambassador to Tehran. In the ensuing months, several agents from the Intelligence Ministry were arrested in connection with Kazemi's death.

A parliamentary commission report released in November 2003 said that members of the Iranian judiciary had been holding Kazemi in custody when she was beaten, making it unlikely, according to journalists and reformist politicians, that those responsible for her death will be brought to justice.

The trial, which began on July 17, was abruptly ended the following day. Kazemi's legal team, headed by Nobel laureate Shirin Ebadi, accused the court of refusing to hear witness testimony and to consider evidence accusing another prison official of delivering the fatal blow that killed Kazemi.

Ebadi said she would appeal the verdict in Iranian courts, but that if justice is denied, they will have no choice but to take the case "to international courts and the United Nations."